The Invasion
by Micronowski
Summary: A city is overcome with panic as they are forced to confront their greatest fear
1. Jack

Jack woke up in the middle of the night drenched in a cold sweat. His heart was racing and his head was pounding, he was paralyzed with fear and he did not know why. He stared at the celling, afraid to move incase movement somehow triggered the impending danger he felt was going to jump out any second.

After a few minutes passed, he realized he wasn't going to be able to fall back to sleep. Rolling over he grabbed his watch, it was 3:45 AM. He climbed out of bed and put some pants on then walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Opening his fridge he was not greeted by a cold rush of air he would normally receive, instead it was a dark shelf with no breeze at all. He grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and grabbed the remote for his TV. His power must have been out because the TV wouldn't turn on either.  
Grabbing his lukewarm water, he walked towards the window and looked outside. Everything seemed calm aside from some of the buildings in the city missing their lights. The power outage must be huge if it managed to take out most of downtown Los Angeles.

Wishing he still had his electricity so he could find out why he didn't have any electricity, he walked into his bathroom and looked into a dark mirror. If any of the lights worked, he would have seen a mid-twenty year old man with brown shaggy hair and brown eyes staring back. It had only been just under 30 minutes since he had gotten up and he was already starting to worry about his wife. She had been on a business trip to New York and was due back that morning. This seemed increasingly unlikely, especially if the airports were having the same electrical issues he was. Wishing he could call her to see if she was ok, He splashed some water onto his face and made his way back into the bedroom.

"Go get me your leash" he said to his dog hunter, who was staring intently at him from across the room.  
Obeying his command, hunter ran across the room and returned with his leash. Connecting it to his collar, he exited his house to go for a walk.  
His cul-de-sac was fairly empty compared to what it normally was, which usually consisted of neighbors and their friends parking their cars all up and down the street. He continued on and picked up his speed to a jog until he reached the next block and was shaken at what he saw.  
People all down the street were frantically stuffing cloths and valuables into their cars and speeding off as fast as they could. Everyone was obviously terrified at something, but that wasn't readily apparent. The only thing that jumped out was the power outage and that was hardly something to panic about.

Realizing that something bigger might be going on and without any electricity, word of mouth was the only way he was going to get any answers. He ran up to a nearby middle-aged man who was hunched over the hood of his car…crying.

"Hey buddy, do you know what's going on?" he said in as passive of a voice as he could muster, given the situation.

The guy ignored him and continued sobbing over his car.

"Look I know you're upset, maybe I can help you. Can you tell me what's going on?" he said in a more assertive voice this time.

"...it won't start. My car it won't start. What am I going to do?" the middle age man said in a shaky voice.

"Let me take a look at it for you. I don't know much about cars but maybe we can figure this out" Said Jack as he walked to the car and opened the hood.

Noticing right away that the hood looked like it had previously been pried open, maybe with a metal crowbar or something, he peered in to the car only to see the engine was gone. Whoever stole this man's engine did it in a rush given the chaotic state they had left it in.

"I don't know what's going on here Sir, but your engine—" he started to say before he was interrupted by a loud scream followed by a car speeding out of control and crashing into a nearby lamp poll, which was also out of power as well. The Middle aged man, taking this as an opportunity, ran towards the car maybe thinking he could steal it to escape whatever he thought the danger was.

"Give me all of your fucking money" said a voice standing behind him.

As he spoke, hunter started growling and the fur on the canines back stood straight up. Jack turned around to confront the voice.

"I'd be happy to, but first can you tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Armageddon brother! Survival of the fittest. Only people looking out for themselves are going to survive. Now give me your fucking money" asserted the mugger as he held up what seemed to be a small handgun, but it was hard to tell in the pitch black night.

"I don't have my wallet on me, sorry buddy" Jack said as he readied himself to attack the mugger.

"Then I guess this is your unlucky day asshole"

The mugger raised the gun and pointed it at Jacks head but before he could shoot a loud sound, like some kind of battle horn, filled the sky. The sound was excruciating, loud enough to knock both him and the mugger off their feet. Hunter took off running down the street, unable to cope with the sound.  
The mugger trying to get his bearings reached for the gun but not before the loud horn filled the air once more. This time it was enough to knock the mugger unconscious.

Jack scrambled to his feet and looked up into the sky, head pounding. The dark clouds in the sky slowly started turning a brighter shade of red until he was unable to stare at it any longer, it was blinding. The loud horn went off one more time and this time, in the distance, he saw an object probably five times the size of the empire state building descending to the ground.

As he was struck awe by the sight, a lady behind him let out a loud scream.

"THE REAPERS ARE COMING"


	2. Ancus

The old bar was empty, people had long cleared out. Ancus sat there quietly on a bar stool, sipping a drink while trying not to think of the riots happening outside. He could hear the yells and explosions coming from a nearby locations but he just continued on with his drink. Finishing the last gulp, he reached over the wooden counter and grabbed a bottle of whiskey and poured himself another.

Ancus was a Turian diplomat who came to earth to establish trade routes and strengthen their relationship with Humans. Just last week he had met with the UNAS to work out a deal, and the negotiating went very well in his opinion. He was taking some extra time for personal leave, sightseeing the states, when the attack happened. The first thing he had tried to do when things started going to hell was get a shuttle off of earth but unfortunately for Ancus, most shuttles had been grounded. The only people getting on and off planet earth now were high ranking political and military personnel.

Considering his situation and getting frustrated, Ancus threw his glass across the room where it smashed into the wall and shattered, then reached for the bottle and took a drink directly from it. He knew that Earth was not the only planet under attack and his situation might not be different anywhere else, but if he was going to face this he wanted to do it on his home world Palaven.  
While he was busy trying to forget his problems, at least for a few moments, some people managed to slip into the bar and sit at the table closet to him.

"Most people are running around like headless chickens, did you guys decide to sit this one out? Or maybe the magnitude of the situation hasn't had time enough to set in yet." He said, finally sensing he was no longer alone in the bar.

"We could ask you the same question stranger. How about you do us a solid and pour us a drink" Said a male voice echoing from the table.

"That might be difficult considering I broke all of the glasses. But there's a few bottles over here you're welcome to" Ancus asserted as he threw them a brown bottle with a white label in their direction.

Finally seeing them through the small cracks of the moonlight that shinned into the bar, there was a male and a female that gazed back at him from their table. The man had to be in his late 40's with his hair starting to gray heavily on the sides, the female couldn't have been any older than 20 with short black hair and a narrow face. They seemed pretty beat up; the man had a bloody gash above his left eye that looked fairly recent but the girl was mostly in good shape with just some smudges of dirt here and there. Ancus didn't think much of it considering the mess they probably came through just to get to where they are now so he didn't question it.

"Thank you kindly" said the older man popping open the brown bottle and taking a long drink out of it before passing it to the girl sitting next to him.

"I'm frank and this pretty little thing is dawn. We've been stranded here and I'd imagine you are in the same situation as us and was wonderin' if we might be able to work together" said Frank as he grabbed the bottle back from dawn for another drink.

"What did you have in mind" He chuckled out, entertaining the idea of working with anyone but himself.

"Well its funny you should ask because I couldn't help but notice the nice vehicle parked neatly outside behind the bushes. That must be the only civilian car we've seen that looks like it still flies" whispered Frank with a plastic smile on his face.

"We're under the impression you want to be a good samaritan and will give us that car" he finished

Not taken by surprise, Ancus apathetically answered "And why would I want to do that, exactly?"

"Truthfully I'm not asking, if you catch my meaning partner" Frank pulled out a shotgun and set it on the table pointing it towards Him.

Ancus let out a large sigh of relief and stared at Frank deep in thought.

"What's it gonna be partner? Going to hand it over quietly or is this going to have to turn nasty?" as he said that, Frank picked up the shotgun and stood up from the table and aimed the barrels at Ancus' face.

"I've reconsidered" Ancus said with a smirk on his face  
"I think my luck is finally starting to change"

Frank started to ask what he meant but before the words escaped his lips, Ancus has already pulled out a pistol hidden in his back holster and squeezed the trigger, hitting frank in the forehead causing him to fall back, knocking over the table.

Dawn got up and screamed and then starting to sprint towards the door but Ancus was already ready for her, grabbing her by the arm and throwing her to the ground.

Struck with fear, unable to move she just sat there shaking, afraid to say anything knowing that the next sound she makes might be her last.

"You haven't said much since you've arrived, but I don't think you're as dumb as you look. This plan to come in here and steal my ride was not that old geezers plan" Ancus remained still and looking at Dawn lying there on the ground, still frozen in fear

"You made a mistake when you walked into this bar however; I'm not your typical shakedown. Now you're going to give me exactly what I want, do you understand?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! I had no idea what he was going to do and I was only with him because he said he could help me! You have to believe me" Dawn cried out as tears started filling her eyes.

"Nice act, you should save it for the next sap that comes your way. But for now, let's get down to business" Ancus stood up and pointed his gun between Dawn's eyes.

"You're going to take me to your ship so I can get the fuck off this planet!"


	3. Jack 2

Jack awoke several hours after the invasion. He was knocked unconscious after the landing from the sounds being emitted by the Reapers. The last thing he remembered was watching them descend down into the middle of LA and the screams and explosions that followed shortly. Things seemed to have calmed down now as he couldn't sense any immediate activity happening around him. Thick white fog filled the air limiting his vision to just a few feet around him; if the reapers were still there he couldn't see them much less hear them. In fact, jack realized he couldn't hear anything at all, he was completely deaf. He felt a strong pressure on his eardrums and a slightly throbbing pain that seemed to worsen when he lifted his head.  
With the fog filling the air, he wasn't sure what the street was that he had passed out on. Slowly and painfully he picked himself off the ground and started walking in a random direction. He passed a few buildings as hiked but they were all destroyed, including his home that used to be in the cul-de-sac. As he pushed his way through the fog, he thought about his wife that he was supposed to meet that morning at the airport. Jack knew there was no way the plane could have landed under those conditions, either by the reapers attacking it or by the airport most likely being destroyed when they reached LAX. He would have given anything for the chance to warn her but it was too late.

Before Jack could fill himself with any more regret, he spotted a light shining through in the distance.  
"Hello!" he shouted in a desperate attempt to find help even though he knew he couldn't hear anyone even if they replied. "Is anyone there? I need help!"  
Racing towards the light, he was sure he found someone. The light grew brighter the closer he got, he wasn't hallucinating this, it was really there. He finally reached the light, or was close enough to see it without the fog interfering with his sight. It wasn't the help he thought it was but it was something. Jack walked up to the car that had its lights turned on and peaked inside. The keys were still in the ignition but it wasn't a skycar. Instead it was a regular land vehicle someone had abandoned, probably as they were making their escape and traffic was too much of a burden to bear. Traffic was one thing Jack would have given anything for, anything to show there was someone still out there.  
Jack opened the door and sat inside the car. It was already running so all he had to do was put it into drive and be on his way. First jack turned on the radio to see if he could find anyone broadcasting on what the hell was going on. Quickly remembering he couldn't hear anything he moved on to examine the rest of the car. His heart sank when his eyes moved over the gas gauge as he noticed it had a quarter of a tank left.

Deciding to use what he could get out of it, he put the car into drive and slowly started driving down the street, being careful not to crash into anything hidden in the fog. Jack was very familiar with LA but with the thick fog he had absolutely no sense of direction at all. So once again Jack just picked whatever directly he felt was right and stuck with it. As Jack drove he left the radio on, despite not hearing anything but this turned out to be a good idea after all as the small bumps in the road were somehow opening up his ears. The longer he went the more he could make out the static coming from the speakers, after several minutes sounds were coming through fairly clear.

He drove for what he thought was hours before the car started to show signs of calling it quits but not before he had found a local grocery store. With the last of the gas he parked the car neatly in** a** parking space (just because this was the end of the world doesn't mean he had to park like a barbarian) and got out and headed towards the store. This may have been his lucky day because as he walked towards it, he could see a person peeking out of the window ,which he could tell was heavily barricaded and only enough room was left for a peep hole.  
"I'm a survivor of the attacks! Can you let me in! I need help" Jack asserted with a voice loud enough for them to hear him.  
"Get the hell out of here! You're going to draw attention to us you idiot!" a voice returned from behind the door.  
"What are you talking about? Draw whose attention? The reapers? No one is here."  
"Yes! I mean no! Will you just go away we can't help you! And hurry" the voice returned once more.  
"I'm not going anywhere until you let me in. What is wrong with you, we need to help each other if we're going to survive this. Isolating ourselves is just going to get you killed!" Jack tried to reason with the voice behind the door.  
"I'm sorry…But you're already dead. No one can help you now" Was the last thing the voice said before it stopped responding to him. Jack pounded on the door for some time trying to get someone to hear him, to change their mind when he heard a noise deep in the fog.  
The moaning sound grew louder, and Jack knew whatever it was, it was moving closer. His first instinct was to run as far away as fast as he could but part of him knew it was pointless. Looking around for something he might be able to use to defend himself with, he located a piece of wood that had broken off of the grocery store most likely during the attack. Behind him he could hear the people in the store piling up more items to reinforce the barricade they had behind the door.  
"heartless assholes" he thought to himself as he stared in the direction of the moans. Then it happened.

A gray and blue shape was forming in the shadows, lazily moving walking forward. When it was close enough for him to see, he could see it was a human. _No, not a human, a shell of a person. A husk._  
Staring at the deformed husk as it moved towards him he was frozen in fear unable to move. Jack knew that when the warped human reached him he wasn't going to be able to stop it. He didn't know why he had no will to fight this thing. He thought it might have been pity, pity for the sad fate of the individual who was mutated into this or pity for himself in the fate that he was cast.  
As Jack awaited his fate, out from the bushes of the grocery store raced out his dog Hunter who he had lost back when the invasion started. Hunter sprinted up Jack and positioned himself between him and the husk, growling intensely as his hair stood straight up on his back. Examining the dog he could see he had been badly injured already with a large scratch above his left leg which was still bleeding.  
The husk was unmoved by the sight of the dog and persisted with his advancement. Hunter, also not intimidated by his foe, charged forward with an attack and bit the husk hard on his right arm and thrust it to the ground.  
The Husk seemed to have difficulty keeping up with the quick attacks Hunter was using. It swiped at the dog several times but Hunter's agility allowed him to stay out of its reach long enough to take another bite, this time at its leg. Hunter's bite took a lot with it, when he saw the Husk again it was missing a large chunk of its leg, enough to cause it to collapse to the ground permanently this time. This came at a cost though as it left the dog open to a heavy blow to his head sending him flying and knocking him out.

Shaking Jack into action, he picked up the wooden plank once more and charged at the husk slamming it down onto its head. If husks could feel pain it, it showed no sign of it as once Jack reached back for another swing the husk had recovered and reached out and wrapped both of its hands around Jack's throat and started choking him. Struggling back He did everything he could to break the Husk's grip around him but its strength was superhuman. Gasping for air, he was starting to black out. Before he passed out the Husk was thrown back violently to the ground allowing Jack to gasp for air. Hunter had awoken and was back fighting the Husk.  
The Husk was starting to get desperate, as he was no match for the dog, and started to glow. Taking this as a sign of weakness, the dog latched onto the husks throat biting down as hard as he could. As soon as he did a huge flash of light and electricity filled the air blinding the area around it for what felt like an eternity. As things cleared Jack saw the Husk on the ground, even emptier of a shell than it was before as it was defeated. Nearby he saw his dog slumped over on its side unable to stand.  
Jack walked over to examine his condition, which wasn't good. He picked up his best friend and held him in his arms as he passed away.


End file.
